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Stay up to date on Federal and State News

It is important to stay up to date with all government affairs news. NCRA Government Relations depart is going to continue to provide you with the most recent up to date news legislative news. The new legislative news section will include both Federal news and state news. The Federal news will provide news on committee hearings, the presidential race information, and current bills. It will also provide state’s news will include legislation challenges, and information on important legislation victories. Having information and news from around the country will help keep all court reporters informed.

News:

On May 3, the Rhode Island State Senate passed legislation that would require establishments that provide televisions in public spaces to offer closed captioning if a guest or patron asks for it. Senate bill 2321 was sponsored by Sen. Hanna M. Gallo in response to the 8.6 percent of the state that is deaf or hard of hearing. Upon the legislation’s successful passage, Sen. Gallo proclaimed, “Closed captioning is readily available on most TVs, there is no extra charge for using it, and there’s no special equipment necessary to offer it. So it seems only appropriate and considerate that any establishment that makes a TV available to its customers or patrons would want to make sure any non-hearing customers can also enjoy it.”

The legislation now moves on to the state House of Representatives where an identical partner bill is currently pending. While there have been positive steps toward passage, there are still several procedural hurdles to overcome before the legislation becomes law. NCRA commends the Rhode Island State Senate for passing this historic legislation, and we encourage the State House to quickly follow suit so that no Rhode Island citizen is denied access to television programming in public places.